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Our Opinion

The Huawei Honor 10 is a significantly better phone, but the Huawei Honor Play (4GB RAM) is slightly better value for money. Which phone should you buy? Depends on how much you want to spend! But from a pure value perspective, we recommend the Huawei Honor 10.

Absolutely dazzling glass design, identical to the much more expensive P20 Pro - this phone is a looker

Easy to use with one hand

The fingerprint sensor below the display is molded into the bezel itself - there's no depression where a home button would normally be, which gives the phone a neat, seamless look - the sensor also doubles as a touch-sensitive home button when the phone's in use

Very good, modern 19:9 tall display, with minimal bezels, and a 'notch' design, like the iPhone X - the display itself is sharp and bright

Packed with powerful top-end hardware - the phone runs the same top-end Kirin 970 chip found in Huawei's flagship (Huawei makes the chip itself) and gives almost identical performance - thus putting it in the league of the top-end flagship phones, at a much cheaper price - apps load quickly, photo editing is hassle-free and demanding games play very well

Good set of dual cameras on the back, enhanced by Huawei's AI tech - the camera uses artificial intelligence to detect what scene is being photographed and tweaks the image accordingly - and it works quite well - overall the cameras are only one notch below the best of the best like the Pixel 2 (which costs a lot more)

Good front camera too

Loud speaker

Good battery life - will last the day with moderate to heavy use

On the whole, the Honor 10 is a pretty solid phone, and delivers the same fast speeds and stylish colours as its flagship cousin the Huawei P20 Pro (although not quite the same superlative camera quality), at a much lower price, and has a standard headphone jack too - it's also a solid alternative to the excellent OnePlus 6, within this price bracket

Well built, unibody metal design - the Honor Play is sturdy, solid, and reassuring

Slim & sleek at just 7.5mm thick, which is quite an achievement especially as it packs a large 3750mAh battery

Nice, immersive, modern 19.5:9 'notch' display - colour accuracy and viewing angles are both good - and playing games or watching videos is an immersive experience

Also special is support for 'GPU Turbo' which reduces battery drain when playing supported games (technically it is a core level change to how the GPU handles the rendering of visuals) - Honor also is working on implementing GPU Turbo for EMUI visuals which should improve batteryperformance of the phone even during general use

Also enabled later via an OTA would be a feature called AI 4D Smart Shock to bring a new level of immersion for gamers - the feature will provide haptic feedback that is unique and customised to the games you play and the actions you execute within that game

Good selfie camera, especially in daylight conditions - selfies are rather pleasant and the colours, contrast and dynamic range are all within an acceptable range

Very good battery life - it will easily last a day and a half or more on moderate to heavy usage - and if Honor does truly end up implementing GPU Turbo for EMUI’s interface like they plan to, you can expect even better battery life over the course of time

Supports fast charging

On the whole, the Honor Play looks like a good choice at this price point - if you’re looking for a phone that’s all about great battery life, really good performance and great visuals, the Honor Play will suit your needs beautifully, as long as you don’t particularly care about having the very best imaging device as well

2-minute Review [Negatives]

The glass gets slippery so you might want to use a case

The Honor 10's fingerprint sensor looks pretty seamless from the outside, but is somewhat hard to reach with one hand, and is can sometimes be slow and inaccurate - you might find yourself relying more on the face unlock in daily use

The EMUI Android skin is quite feature packed, but not the most light Android skin around

The phone has a little bit of a tendency to warm up when stressed during gaming and while using other heavy apps

EMUI is not the most simple Android UI and can be cluttered at places

GPU Turbo support is currently limited to very few games

GPU Turbo is also not an exclusive feature - it will roll it out to existing phones like the Honor 10, Honor View 10, Honor 9 Lite and Honor 7X via a software update - so if you can afford the Honor View 10, it might be a better choice, since the Honor Play is basically a toned down version of the Honor View 10 (the View 10 especially has an edge with its cameras)

The rear dual camera setup does decently well in good light, but the low-light performance could have been significantly better - there are better-overall-camera phones around in this price bracket, including the likes of the Mi A2, the Redmi Note 5 Pro, and the Zenfone 5Z

Expert Reviews

The Honor 10 easily matches some of the best phones on the market in terms of looks, performance, camera, and yet it costs half of their price tags

If you’re looking for a phone that’s all about great battery life, really good performance and great visuals, the Honor Play will suit your needs beautifully, as long as you don’t particularly care about having the very best imaging device as well